These are glad days for Stacey Nelson, a 2005 Los Alamitos graduate and softball pitcher extraordinaire who established an almost mythical legacy at the University of Florida where she won 136 games in four seasons and led the Gators to two Women’s College World Series appearances.

Throughout the summer and fall, she performed on the Professional Fast Pitch X-Treme (PFX) tour, and one of her teammates was her childhood idol, Lisa Fernandez.

In December, she went through graduation at Florida and, for being named one of its four Outstanding Senior Leaders, she wound up sitting next to another renowned Gator athlete, Tim Tebow, during the ceremony.

And, on Monday, Nelson will fly to Japan where she will play for a Honda team on the prefecture of Tochigi, and will remain there until November with a break in the schedule in June and July.

“We’ll be playing four games every weekend, but we’ll be practicing eight hours daily during the week days,” she says.

Not that Stacy Nelson – daughter of Craig Nelson and Karolyn Nelson, an alternate on the USA national softball team, a regular at the Diane Lewis School of Softball in Signal Hill – is complaining.

Actually, she’s looking forward to the cultural experience, and the only stimulation she made in her contract is that she would be provided with a teacher so she could learn Japanese.

And, of course, there is another compelling reason for her deciding to delay her entrance into law school and continue her softball pitching in Japan.

She will be well-indemnified for her labors, as she will receive a six-figure salary, not to mention her own private apartment, Internet access, cell phone and food and transportation expenses.

In these tough economic times, how many recent college graduates have an opportunity to earn such an immense income with all the lucrative perks?

“I’m not even sure I’d be able to find a job if I were looking for one,” Nelson says. “I had applied to a lot of law schools – Florida, Texas, USC, UCLA – and was waiting to hear from them when I was contacted by the Honda team.

“I turned down their first offer, and figured I’d soon be enrolling in law school. But they came back with a second offer that I couldn’t refuse.”

She will be joined on the Honda team by another local softball standout, catcher Lauren Lupinetti, a 2005 Lakewood High graduate who played at Cal Sate Fullerton.

“I feel very fortunate that I’ve been given such an opportunity to play abroad,” Nelson says. “The Honda people had a few pitchers on their radar, and I was one of them. Each team can have only two foreigners on it, and Lauren and I are the ones on the Honda team.”

Stacey Nelson also was thrilled to perform on the PFX tour, and one of the reasons was that she got to play alongside Lisa Fernandez.

“Lisa played third base on the team, and, oh, can she hit,” she says. “In fact, she’s the hitter I fear most in the world. I’ve always been a huge fan of Lisa, who I consider the greatest player in women’s softball history.

“And you should see her son Antonio, who can’t be more than five, hit. He’s definitely a future major leaguer.”

Stacey Nelson’s numbers during her tenure at Florida were astounding – 1,116 strikeouts, 133 complete games, 60 shutouts, 0.99 ERA, 88 victories in her final two seasons with the Gators.

Florida never had even been to a College World Series until Nelson’s arrival.

“What were my greatest memories playing at Florida?” she says, repeating a question. “Oh, for sure, the first time we made it to the College World Series was special. I don’t think Florida ever even made it past the Super Regionals before.

“But what I will remember most about the experience was the tremendous clubhouse camaraderie I had with my teammates. We had a lot of fun, lot of laughs, and, obviously, celebrated a lot of victories. There were some painful losses, but that’s just a part of playing sports. A lot of good times. Some bad times…”

Stacey Nelson has been to Japan twice, having played a few exhibition games on the first visit and on the second appearing on a TV game show in which Japanese celebrities attempted to hit her wicked pitches.

“One guy actually hit the ball, but it would have been an easy groundout during a game,” she says. “The rest swung and missed.”

Stacey Nelson says she already knows a few words in Japanese.

“I can say things like, `Good morning,’ and `Nice to meet you,”‘ she says. “But by November, I figure to know a lot more Japanese phrases. I’m looking so forward to being there. After all, I love sushi. And I love playing softball.”

And, of course, that hefty paycheck she will be earning isn’t bad, either, especially when you consider Stacey Nelson is a mere 22.

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